New hybrid operating room offers options to surgeons

Martin B. Cassidy

Updated 11:04 pm, Monday, February 18, 2013

Photo: Dru Nadler

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Robert Bolek, clinical operations director, shows Stamford (Conn.) Hospital's new hybrid operating room on Monday February 18, 2013, which is supposed to improve the outcomes of complex cardiac and vascular surgeries for sicker patients. less

Robert Bolek, clinical operations director, shows Stamford (Conn.) Hospital's new hybrid operating room on Monday February 18, 2013, which is supposed to improve the outcomes of complex cardiac and vascular ... more

Photo: Dru Nadler

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Robert Bolek, clinical operations director, shows Stamford (Conn.) Hospital's new hybrid operating room on Monday February 18, 2013, which is supposed to improve the outcomes of complex cardiac and vascular surgeries for sicker patients. less

Robert Bolek, clinical operations director, shows Stamford (Conn.) Hospital's new hybrid operating room on Monday February 18, 2013, which is supposed to improve the outcomes of complex cardiac and vascular ... more

Photo: Dru Nadler

New hybrid operating room offers options to surgeons

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Dr. Michael Coady, chief of cardiac surgery for Stamford Hospital, says cardiac and vascular surgeons are often prevented from performing cardiac surgeries for older patients because of pre-existing conditions such as high blood pressure, poor kidney function, and arterial blockages.

During cardiac bypass surgery, the required use of a heart and lung machine for life support can wreak damage on weak kidneys, even complete renal failure, Coady said. A new hybrid operating room at Stamford Hospital allows doctors to conduct surgeries and other procedures in less time, helping limit time on life support devices.

"It's really the way of the future," Coady said. "We're doing more advanced surgeries on sicker patients particularly on those who might otherwise not have been able to have surgery at all."

In November, cardiac and vascular surgeons at Stamford Hospital's Heart & Vascular Institute began using a new $3.3 million hybrid operating room at the Shelburne Road facility capable of hosting conventional open heart and less invasive cardiac catheterization and other procedures performed by vascular surgeons, Coady said.

Cardiac and vascular surgeons in the room also have a new set of advanced imaging equipment that lets them capture angiographic images to help inform procedures and complete them in less time and with reduced danger to older and sicker patients, doctors said.

The facility's imaging equipment includes the Artis zeego, a multi-axis C-arm system, which allows surgeons and specialists to record more precise and multi-dimensional angiographic images before, during, and after procedures.

Dr. Stephen Bauer, a vascular surgeon for the Southern Connecticut Vascular Center and at Stamford Hospital, said combined capabilities offered by the room vastly expands the efficiency and use of so-called endovascular procedures, a group of less invasive interventional methods to help restore healthy blood flow by conducting procedures through major blood vessels.

The improved angiograms are useful during balloon stenting procedures, which are used to help treat vascular disease by inserting small metal rods into damaged or blocked blood vessels to keep them open, Bauer said.

"What we've been able to do in the hybrid approach instead of a separate open procedure is get access and stent the arteries in a combined endo-vascular and open procedure," Bauer said. "It's less invasive and it gives you better outcomes especially in our population who tend to be elderly and have significant vascular disease."

In many cases, the surgery can achieve the same beneficial effects with vastly shorter recovery times as previously common vascular reconstruction surgeries which required opening larger incisions, Bauer said.

Another potentially life-saving procedure involving long thin catheter tubes is the endo-vascular stent graft, which is used to thoracic aortic aneurysm, a potentially life-threatening bulge in the main artery of the heart, Bauer said.

"What the hybrid room really offers is an opportunity to work on thoracic aortic pathologies with outstanding results using minimally invasive techniques," Bauer said.